“I was gunning for a basement office with no heat or windows.” – Fox Mulder.
GHOST IN THE MACHINE [Standalone] Aired November 5, 1993
Episode: 1×06 / 7 Overall
Director: Jerrold Freedman • Writer: Alex Gansa & Howard Gordon
On Halloween, Mulder and Scully investigate the death of a corporate executive who may have been murdered by a thinking computer.
The capabilities and potential application of artificial intelligence have long been explored in science fiction. Arguably the two most prominent iterations of sentient machines causing havoc in popular culture would have to be 2001’s HAL 9000 and of course Skynet from the Terminator franchise, this episode borrows heavily from the former. Even in 1993 this concept had been explored numerous times so Gordon and Gansa are hardly breaking new ground with their second outing as an X-Files writing duo, even so Ghost in the Machine is still enjoyable if not somewhat unintentionally comical. Being predominantly of the science fiction genre, The X-Files was always a show that demanded from it’s audience a suspension of disbelief. Therefore, while there are certainly some questionable scenes within this episode that lack a tenable explanation, I think it’s unfair to question the validity of such plot elements in a show about aliens and monsters. There is certainly an art to convincing audiences to accept the absurd, and the writing and directing combination herein manage to walk this fine line with just a few stumbles along the way.
Many of the scenes involving the computer system pay homage to the famous HAL, the close up angles of the camera lens in particular mirrors that of HAL’s iconic glowing artificial eye. The machines voice however is far less foreboding and unfortunately comes off as cheesy, especially when given the corny lines such as “program executed”, in reference having just killed a man. Super intelligent A.I. is always fascinating though and despite it’s shortcomings the antagonist in this episode is still captivating enough, especially thanks to it’s unconventional methods of committing murder.
Scully was approached by a former colleague, seeking her advice in episode 3, Squeeze and now we get a glimpse of Mulder’s work prior to the X-Files as he is contacted by his former partner from violent crimes, Agent Jerry Lamana, Wayne Duvall. It’s interesting since we quickly forget that both agents had a life before their current work and similar to Scully’s colleague in Squeeze these characters serve the purpose to highlight just how skillful and revered these two agents were in their former positions. In both instances they are contacted by agents requesting their help, both of whom struggle to understand the legitimacy of the X-Files unit. Agent Lamana is particularly desperate and Mulder appears very willing to help. Lamana eventually finds himself in a sticky situation and winds up dead at the hands of the benevolent COS system. It’s here that we encounter possibly the weakest link in the episodes writing. Mulder is apparently shaken by the death of his former colleague so much so that Scully repeatedly tries to dissuade him from working the case as she believes he is not fit for work, having been emotionally rocked by these unforeseen circumstances. Unfortunately, we are not convinced. The introduction of Lamana and then his timely death happen all too quickly for the audience to form any connection to the character and Mulder’s reaction doesn’t sell the idea that this has affected him a great deal. Perhaps if the two agents where written as good friends with more of a personal history then the audience, and Mulder himself, would have been more emotionally connected to this plot element.
There are some well written guest characters throughout the life of the series that feel fleshed out and multidimensional. Wilczek is not exactly among the top ranks but the little additions to his character from Gansa and Gordon make him more interesting than some others. His aversion to shoes is a perfect example of a simple character traits that serves to give him a little more personality. It’s a small addition but it usually only takes a few well crafted attributes or idiosyncrasies to add the necessary flourish to a guest character that makes them more memorable. Speaking of guests characters, this episode marks the second appearance of Deep Throat, Mulder’s secret government informant first seen in episode 2. Mulder contacts him regarding the government application of Wyczek’s work in the defence department. He is able to provide Mulder with some answers however overall his inclusion in this episode feels somewhat wasted. He doesn’t really tell Mulder anything he could not have found out on his own and it seems like a futile attempt from the writers to imply some type of larger government conspiracy involving weapons manufacture, which frankly the episode could have done without.
In true X-Files style the final scene makes an attempt at leaving the danger still lurking as we see that the system is still showing signs of life even after having been physically dismantled. Though, the logic of this final shot is hard to swallow as Deep Throat has just finished saying that Wyczek’s virus had destroying all traces of the A.I. Overall it’s certainly a step in the right direction for the writing pair and a rise in quality from their first episode, still their best is yet to come.
★★☆☆☆
The X-Files Retrospective Project 